Montoya Bids Disappointing Farewell to CART

Juan Pablo Montoya was unable to bid farewell to CART Racing in the manner he had envisioned, after his engine blew with 31 laps remaining in the series season finale on Monday, leaving him 10th in the race and nineth in the championship.

Montoya joins the Formula One circus next year driving for the Williams team, and he was clearly hoping to wave goodbye to teammates and rivals from atop the podium, but his Toyota Lola failed to cooperate.

"It's disappointing," said the 25-year-old Colombian, who was looking to add a victory in the season finale to his Indianapolis 500 and Michigan 500 wins this year. "But we've had a great run over the last two seasons."

Montoya, who was running second when his engine blew on Monday, captured the CART series championship in his rookie year in 1999. In two years he posted 10 victories and won 14 poles in the 40 events he contested.

He finished this year's championship title defense a disappointing ninth.

"I feel bad that I couldn't give the team one more championship," Montoya said. "It would have been a great way to repay them for being so good to me these two years.

"We gave it our best shot, but it was frustrating," added Montoya.

The Colombian managed to find a silver lining in his failure to repeat as champion. "Maybe that's been good for me. It made me realize that everything doesn't always go my way," he said.

Montoya had raced just one oval track before joining the CART series, but he thrived on the high speed layouts he will leave behind when he gets in the cockpit of a Formula One car.

"I'm going to miss the ovals," he said. "I got so I really enjoyed them, although the superspeedways like Fontana can be very dangerous."

He said he would also miss the camaraderie of the tight knit Chip Ganassi Racing Team and many of his CART rivals. He has already received a less than warm welcome from future Williams teammate Ralf Schumacher, who said publicly he would have preferred Williams retain Briton Jenson Button as its other driver.

"I'm going to miss my guys (crew) and the other drivers, some of them, that is. There are some I won't miss at all," Montoya said, without giving in to prodding for names.

Montoya begins the next phase of his career next month with a Williams test session in Barcelona, Spain. "I can't wait to get in the car and start testing myself," he said.